/*
* Copyright 2002-2006 Peter Lin
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
*   http://ruleml-dev.sourceforge.net/
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
* 
*/
using System;
using System.Collections;
using Creshendo.Util;
using Creshendo.Util.Rete;

namespace Creshendo.Functions
{
    /// <author>  Peter Lin
    /// *
    /// FunctionGroup is an organizational feature to group functions. For example,
    /// one might want to group mathematic functions together. Or IO functions together
    /// into a group.
    /// 
    /// </author>
    public interface IFunctionGroup
    {
        String Name { get; }

        /// <summary> classes implementing the interface need to implement this method to
        /// create instances of the function and register them the rule engine.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="">engine
        /// 
        /// </param>
        void loadFunctions(Rete engine);

        /// <summary> A convienance method for listing the functions in a given group.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>
        /// 
        /// </returns>
        IList listFunctions();
    }
}